Prudence and will for Good as an indispensable coherence component of Family and the State – Homer

In this post we present and analyze an excerpt from Homer’s Iliad.

Homer’s Iliad, Rhapsody 7, Verses 160-162

Ancient Greek: “τώ δέ γυνή Προίτου επεμήνατο, δί’ Άντεια, κρυπταδίη φιλότητι μιγήμεναι. Αλλά τόν ού τι πείθ’ αγαθά φρονέοντα, δαϊφρονα Βελλεροφόντην”

In English: “with him, the brave Vellerofontes, Preotus’ wife got mad, the godlike Antea, and secretly with love (with him) wanted to mate. but she couldn’t convince him because he had good/virtuous thinking (or else, ‘because he was prudent’)”

Analysis: He who has good/virtuous thinking (or he who is prudent) does not commit adultery. Based on this ascertainment we can understand the deeper cause of this phenomenon, especially in our times (a quick look at last decades’ statistics will convince anyone).

We may evaluate this fact as a proof that modern people have an increasing tendency to  think less in the direction of good/virtuous. The results of this behaviour are catastrophic at all levels. The first and main one being the dissolution of the Family (Humanity’s most essential institution). Because of the unbreakable connection between the Family and the Polity/Society, whenever this happens, gradually leads to the dissolution of the Polity/Society, too. This helps us realize how important is for Man to think in the direction of good/virtue.

The philosophical effort of the Greeks was focused exactly in this direction. The same aim was also evident in the various political/governing systems the philosophers proposed (or even attempted to apply), in an effort to mould as many as possible good/virtuous human characters in a given Society/Polity. It must be said that  this effort among the Greeks had begun long before the Philosophical movement of the 6th century; the various educational/theological narrations we find in Greek Mythology testify for this.

We need to emphasize that ‘good/virtuous thinking’ (or ‘prudence’) without a  simultaneous pious life stance was, for Homer and the Philosophers, simply inconceivable/unthinkable.

Concluding our short analysis, it appears that the abandonment of religiousness -by the majority of modern people- as an integral part of everyday life can be seriously counted as one of the main reasons -if not the ‘nuclear’ one- for the generalized decadence observed in modern human societies; because without God, everything is ‘allowed’, without any shame or hesitation.

Research-Analysis for NovoScriptorium: Isidoros Aggelos